The Character of John Adams

Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina, 1976. Presumed First Edition, First printing. Hardcover. Very good/Very good. 324 pages. Footnotes. Index. A compact but comprehensive biography brilliantly portraying the poignant revelations of John Adam's inner life implicit in the recently released Adams family manuscripts. The formal side of Adams is reconciled with his remarkably colorful private life by Shaw's penetrating grasp of the whole man. Considerable attention is given to his clash of wills with Franklin in Europe and his later relationship with Jefferson. The account of Adams's twenty-five years of retirement after losing the presidency resolves some of the dilemmas arising from the long career of a man who was never really suited by temperament for politics. The formal side of Adams is reconciled with his remarkably colorful private life by Shaw's penetrating grasp of the whole man. Considerable attention is given to his clash of wills with Franklin in Europe and his later relationship with Jefferson. The account of Adams's twenty-five years of retirement after losing the presidency resolves some of the dilemmas arising from the long career of a man who was never really suited by temperament for politics.